Wisden 20:20
Conquering the conditions
S Rajesh
Sachin Tendulkar’s 29th Test century wasn’t his most fluent innings, but it did the job. On a slow pitch, Tendulkar struggled with his timing in the first half of his innings, but he adapted well later.
He started off with a four down the ground off Adam Sanford, but then hardly played anything in the V between mid-off and mid-on. He was most prolific square of the wicket on either side: 48 runs came in the arc between backward point and extra-cover, while 39 came between backward square leg and midwicket.
Tendulkar’s scratchy start is reflected in his in-control factor of just 73.5% in the morning session - that is, once every four balls he played-and-missed, edged, was rapped on the pad, or played a stroke he wasn’t entirely in control of. By the time he was done for the day, his in-control factor had grown to 83.4%.
As in the first Test, Cameron Cuffy was the stand-out bowler, and his length was the key again. He bowled 83.3% of his deliveries on a good length. The corresponding figures for Mervyn Dillon and Marlon Black were 76% and 69%. Adam Sanford demonstrated that he hadn’t learnt from his first Test - his good-length percentage was a woeful 51%. Not surprisingly, Tendulkar managed just 16 runs from 66 balls off Cuffy, and creamed 45 from 78 balls off Sanford.
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